Photo taken by Elvert Bañares
Mark Salvatus (b. 1980) is a contemporary artist living between Lucban and Quezon City, Philippines. He studied Advertising at the University of Santo Tomas, Manila. Calling his overall artistic practice ‘Salvage Projects’, a name that corresponds to the meaning of his surname, Mark has presented his works in different exhibitions and venues including Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center, MCAD and MET Museum in Manila; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Kyoto Art Center; MMCA, Seoul; Asia Society and ISCP, New York; Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin; MAC Panama, CHAT and Osage Art Foundation in Hong Kong; Hong-gah Museum and The Cube, Taipei; Kamloops Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta; and Brunei Gallery, SOAS, University of London.
Mark is the official Philippine representative for the 60th Venice Art Biennale 2024 curated by Carlos Quijon. Had had also participated in several art festivals and biennales including Asian Art Biennial, Taichung (2021); Lahore Biennale (2020); Sharjah Biennale (2019); PCAN Pavilion, Gwangju Biennale (2018); Thessaloniki Biennale (2017); Philippine Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale (2016); SONSBEEK International, Arnhem (2016); Prologue Exhibition: Honolulu Biennale (2014); Singapore Biennale (2011), Guangzhou Triennale (2011), Jakarta Biennale (2011 & 2015) and Koganecho Bazaar, Yokohama, (2011) . Mark is also part of Notes for Tomorrow, a traveling exhibition from 2021-2025 organized by Independent Curators International. His videos were screened at the 68th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition, Projector X, S.E.A. Focus 2022, Singapore, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, M+ Hong Kong and Cairo Video Festival.
Mark had residencies in Asia Culture Center (ACC) Gwangju, Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, IASPIS Umea, Sweden; Art OMI, New York, Common Room Networks Foundation, Bandung and Goyang Art Studio. He was also a recipient of the 13 Artists Award from the Cultural Center of the Philippines (2012) and Ateneo Art Awards (2010). In 2012 he co-founded 98B COLLABoratory, a multi-disciplinary site for creative sharing, discussion and collaboration. He also founded Load na Dito in 2016 with Mayumi Hirano, a curatorial and research project based in Manila.
Profile picture and bio in courtesy of the artist.
Writings:
MARK SALVATUS: On the sounds of Phillipine culture at the 60th Venice Biennale, Artforum, July 24, 2024 1:07 pm.